1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to methods and compositions for the production of faux finishes, e.g., faux marbleized finishes on furniture or other substrates.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The creation of imitation marble, granite and like faux finishes has been practiced for centuries primarily as an artistic endeavor wherein an artisan manually applies paint to a surface and manipulates it into a pattern that seeks to duplicate the appearance of natural marble, granite, etc. In order to make such operations less labor intensive, a variety of techniques have been tried to get paints or colorants when applied to a substrate to assume a marbleized design without need for detailed manipulation thereof by the artisan.
One early procedure was to mix the colorant with fermented liquor, apply it to a primed surface and, while still wet, sprinkle it with a hot solution of alkali (see U.S. Pat. No. 242,728).
Another marbleizing process involved throwing a series of colors onto a surface with a brush, sponge, or the like and then applying a thin coating of white lead, terebene and turpentine to intensify the colors (see U.S. Pat. No. 654,404).
In another process, imitation marble was alleged to result from mixing oil color with a volatile liquid, e.g., benzin or ether and a drier, applying this glazing color to a surface and then tapping the wet coating with turpentine to distribute the color into a marbled design (see U.S. Pat. No. 825,213).
More recently, in an automatic method for producing a faux finish on a continuous strip of metal channel, it is coated with oil-based paint, then immediately spattering onto the wet paint a non-uniform coating of solvent for the paint and mechanically inducing the spattered paint to flow on the coated surface (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,715 which contains an extensive discussion of the art of creating faux finishes).
The present invention provides yet another technique for creating faux finishes without need for an artisan to manually draw the marbled or like faux pattern on a surface made possible by the discovery of unique movement of colors applied to an absorbant surface by interaction thereof with special activation liquid.